Cendol
Shaved ice with green pandan jelly strands, salted coconut milk and dark gula melaka syrup, with red beans. The Malaysian street dessert for a hot afternoon.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Rest
- 30 min
- Total
- 1 hr 20 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Spice
- No chilli
- Cost
- Cheap nightUnder $8 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Cendol is a bowl of shaved ice with short green pandan jelly strands, cold salted coconut milk and dark gula melaka syrup poured over the top. The jelly is the work. Pandan leaves are blended with water and strained to a bright green juice, which is cooked with rice flour and a little tapioca starch until it turns thick and glossy, then pressed through a colander into iced water so it sets in short, wriggly drops. The rest is assembly. Each part should be cold, the coconut milk salted enough that you notice, and the palm sugar syrup thick, smoky and dark. Red beans are the usual Penang addition.
What you'll need
12 ingredients. Tap each one once it's out on the bench.
- Pandan jelly
- Gula melaka syrup
- Coconut milk
- To serve
Ingredients
Pandan jelly
- Pandan leaves, cut in 2 cm pieces10
- Water400 ml
- Rice flour60 g
- Tapioca, tapioca starch20 g
- Salt1 pinch
Gula melaka syrup
- Palm sugar, gula melaka, chopped150 g
- Water100 ml
- Pandan leaves, tied in a knot1
Coconut milk
- Coconut milk400 ml
- Salt2½ ml
To serve
- Ice, shaved or very finely crushed800 g
- Sweet red beans, sweetened and cooked (optional)100 g
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Blend the pandan leaves with 250 ml of the water until very fine, then strain through a fine sieve or muslin, squeezing hard. Top the green juice up with the rest of the water to 400 ml.
5 min
Step 2
Whisk the rice flour, tapioca starch and salt into the pandan liquid in a saucepan until there are no lumps. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 6 to 8 minutes, until it thickens, turns glossy and looks like translucent wallpaper paste.
8 min
Tip: Keep stirring right into the corners. It goes from thin to thick suddenly and catches.
Step 3
Set a colander with holes of about 5 mm over a large bowl of iced water. Push the hot batter through with a spatula so short strands drop into the water. Leave them 10 minutes to firm, then drain and keep in cold water in the fridge.
15 min
Step 4
Melt the palm sugar with the water and the knotted pandan leaf over low heat, simmer 5 minutes until syrupy, then strain and cool. Warm the coconut milk with the salt only until the salt dissolves, without boiling, then chill it.
10 min
Step 5
Crush the ice in a blender in short pulses until it is fine and snowy. Or freeze water in a shallow tub beforehand and scrape it with a fork.
3 min
Step 6
In each bowl or tall glass, put a big spoonful of cendol and a few red beans, then a mound of ice. Pour over the coconut milk and finish with the syrup. Eat at once.
3 min
Nutrition
Per serving · estimate
- Calories
- 572 kcal
- Protein
- 11.4 g
- Carbs
- 73.6 g
- Fat
- 27.9 g
- Saturated fat
- 20.8 g
- Fibre
- 7.1 g
- Sugar
- 45.3 g
- Sodium
- 750 mg
Calculated from canonical ingredient data (USDA FoodData Central averages and equivalent published tables). Estimates only.
Allergens
Informational only. Not a medical guarantee. Cross-contamination happens in real kitchens.
- No major allergens flagged in the structured ingredients.
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
- Nut-free
Adapt this recipe
The original recipe stays as it is. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are simple maths.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 12 November.
Substitutions
Fresh pandan leaves → Frozen pandan leaves, or water with a few drops of pandan extract
Frozen leaves are almost as good. Extract gives the colour and some of the scent, rarely all of it.
Gula melaka → Dark muscovado melted with a little water
Less smoky and more molasses, but dark and rich enough to carry it.
Tips
- Salt in the coconut milk is not optional. Without it the sweetness goes flat.
- Cendol strands keep two days in cold water in the fridge. The syrup keeps for weeks.
History & culture
Cendol is street food for the heat. In Penang the best-known carts stand in a lane off Penang Road with queues in the afternoon sun, and across Malaysia it is sold from hawker stalls, food courts and the backs of motorbikes. It is a snack, a dessert, and on a hot day a reason to stop.
Green rice-flour jellies in coconut milk and palm sugar are eaten across Southeast Asia, as dawet in Java and lot chong in Thailand, and nobody can show who made them first. In Malaysia cendol was sold by Malay, Chinese and Indian hawkers alike by the mid-20th century, and Penang made its name for it.
Traditional — Stalls make the jelly with mung bean flour (hun kwe) or, as here, a mix of rice flour and tapioca starch, and press it through a perforated cendol frame. A colander with 5 mm holes, which is not in our equipment list, does the same job. Stalls shave ice with a machine; a blender or a scraped frozen tub is the home method.
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips.
How long does Cendol take?
1 hr 20 min all in — 30 min prep, 20 min cook, 30 min rest. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 4 bowls. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Medium.
How spicy is it?
No chilli.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Nut-free.
What does it cost to cook?
Cheap night — about Under $8 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
5 more questionsFewer questions
What equipment do I need?
Blender, Saucepan, Mixing bowl.
How much salt do I put in?
The recipe lists Salt at 1 pinch.
What can I use instead?
Fresh pandan leaves → Frozen pandan leaves, or water with a few drops of pandan extract. Frozen leaves are almost as good. Extract gives the colour and some of the scent, rarely all of it. Gula melaka → Dark muscovado melted with a little water. Less smoky and more molasses, but dark and rich enough to carry it.
Any tips from this recipe?
Salt in the coconut milk is not optional. Without it the sweetness goes flat. Cendol strands keep two days in cold water in the fridge. The syrup keeps for weeks.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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